I’ve been dreaming of eating at El Bulli. One of the world’s foremost restaurants of all time. A friend and I decided to call in sick and fly down over the day if we would get a table. That never happened and now it’s too late. El Bulli closed July 30 this year but has spawned several books, seminars and trends. For what is called molecular cuisine, El Bulli has been an epicenter. This film follows Ferran Adrià and his head chefs from the closing of the restaurant in the fall, through experimenting with ingredients and cooking methods during winter, to the opening in the summer and the development of the new menus. You’ll see a lot of funny food but I was struck by how regular it is. No magic or industrial processes. There is a vacuum treatment with different oils, meringues of various juices and some odd cuts (cartilage from calfs bow may be considered unusual even on Södermalm). The film really doesn’t carry the myth of impossible culinary creations, which is interesting but also feels a little shallow. The chefs don’t do anything for the movie, they just perform their taste tests, and allow themselves to be filmed. In this way, it feels really authentic, but also less relevant. A bit like an odd holiday movie. So for us that always will grieve that we did not eat there, it’s a bit like amateur porn; hard to like but hard to resist.